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Thread: Home-built vises Part 1
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31st March 2013, 10:02 AM #1
Home-built vises Part 1
As suggested in the thread on commercial vises, a thread dedicated to home-built vises might be helpful to those thinking about rolling theor own. There are many variations on this theme, so I’ll kick off the discussion by describing the home-built vises on my bench. The main reason I made my own front vise was cost. I wanted a large vise, & couldn’t afford the only manufactured vise that filled the bill at the time. So the most obvious advantages in building your own are that you can build what suits your requirements & may save quite a bit to spend on other essentials.
I'll establish a couple of categories to keep it in order, so let's begin with Vises which are integral to the bench:
1) Front vise
The total cost of this vise was under $20. It uses a screw intended for tail-vise construction, which I had picked up at a bargain price, plus some ¾” water pipe and two screw-on pipe flanges. The widely-spaced guide bars were to reduce wracking, and to allow wider boards to be held vertically.
Front vise2 red.jpg
Wracking is further controlled by having a secondary pair of fixed guide- bars under the bench.
Front vise red.jpg
Apart from requiring a few holes to be drilled accurately, it’s a pretty simple build, and the pictures should be self-explanatory. The travelling jaw is drilled for a couple of ¾” dogs. And there are matching dog holes in the bench, making a very useful system for holding wide, short pieces like chair seats, flat on the bench top.
Seat held.jpg
The guide bars prevent wracking sufficiently that long, wide pieces can be held on edge easily in the vise jaws , & supported by the sliding deadman, maintining the dge to be planed at an optimal height.
Support1.jpg
The front jaw consists of two pieces glued together, with the guide-bars held securely inside them by the pipe flanges which have been coach-screwed into one side of the jaw piece. If I were making the vise today, I would simply weld a couple of rectangular pieces to the pipe. This would give me more room for an extra pair of dog holes.
This vise suits me very well – the wide jaws hold well, it has a generous opening capacity (x mm), and the dog system works very well.
A feature I have intended adding for years is a swivelling insert for the front jaw to allow me to hold tapered work securely. I’ll get around to it someday.....
2) The tail vise
Those people who have recently discovered ‘travelling dog’ systems (aka ‘wagon vises’) know how useful it is to be able to clamp boards flat on a bench top. However, a ‘proper’ tail vise adds a whole new dimension to that. This is the vise I use far and away the most. Not only is it good for clamping wide boards for surfacing, it does jobs like holding the twin-screw vise above, and the leather-padded jaws are perfect for all sorts of holding arrangements.
tail vise.jpgPic 4.jpg
At first blush, traditional tail vises appear complicated & hard to build, but they are neither. It is basically just a frame (a very solid one) which slides back & forth supported by a bar under the bench, and sometimes by a tongue that engages a slot in the bench
Tail vise mech.jpg
My first attempt worked well & has remained solid & given no trouble for almost 30 years. I did pull it apart a few years ago, & added a couple more dog-holes, something I should hve done from the start. I’ve made quite a few more tail-vises since that one, & helped others make them, & not seen any failures yet. Just work carefully, & keep it all square, and you will end up with one of the best tools in your shed. Their only drawback as far as I can see is that you need to decide you are having one from the start, because it’s a lot of bother to add one to an existing bench (though it could be done, of course).
I favour wooden screws for tail vises, for two reasons. They cost me practically nothing to make, and the nut can be tapped into the end-cap, which is simple & allows maximum travel of the vise. The tall, conical steel nuts that come with metal bench screws are awkward things, and you either have to chop a great hole in the end cap projection to recess it (which could weaken the member considerably at a crucial point), or mount it sticking out, which cuts a good 50mm plus off potential travel of the vise.
3) Shoulder vises
These also have to be incorporated in the basic bench structure, but are relatively simple structures, & less daunting than a tail vise if it’s your first bench build. You can use a wooden or metal screw.
Picture of Frank Klauzs's shoulder vise:shoulder vise.jpg
The main advantages of shoulder vises are (1) simplicity & low cost, (2) having no guide bars to get in the way when clamping stock vertically, and (3) the travelling jaw is attached to the screw by a ball-joint (you can make a joint that works similarly in wood), which can swivel to hold tapered or irregular objects firmly.
Its disavantages are that the extra projection of vise structure & screw makes it unsuitable for small spaces, and it can be an obstruction if you are working on something relatively small, because you have to reach over the entire vise structure.
End part1IW
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31st March 2013, 10:22 AM #2.
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Good idea for a thread Ian.
Here is a link to my "removable shoulder vice" I made in 2006
It work well but I have used it less than half a dozen times
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31st March 2013, 10:29 AM #3
Home-built vises part 2
This part concerns Vises which are not integral to the bench itself
There are several types of add-on vises you can build (some people have made complete low benches equipped with special holding devises that can be placed on the regular bench).
These are the ones I use, & no doubt others will come up with their own special-purpose holding devices: Bench & bits ed.jpg
1) Twin-screw or wide vises
The spacing of the guide bars on my front vise is still not enough to hold boards vertically if they are over 100mm wide, so it’s no use for dovetailing large drawer sides or carcase pieces. After years of fiddling about clamping such jobs to the bench skirt, I finally got around to making myself a twin-screw “Moxon-style” vise.
d_tail vise.jpg
This is nothing more than a few bits of hardwood and a couple of wooden screws (coarse-thread steel bolts could substitute just as well, and you could use one of them to tap a thread directly into the rear jaw instead of using steel nuts). Make the flat piece behind the rear jaw as wide as you can, for stability. The vise needs to be demountable, obviously, & I first attached mine to the bench with bolts that went through the dog holes.
holddown bolts.jpg
This made it very solid, but it was a nuisance to mount & demount quickly. Clamping it between dogs was not totally satisfactory, because it tended to rock a little when sawing. It took some time for the light to come on, but when it did, the solution was very simple. A notch at either end snugly engages a dog, and now all is rock-solid, and I can mount or demount the vise in seconds...
dog notch.jpg
2) Saw vises (or ‘saw-clamps’?)
There are several possible styles for saw vises – they can be built to be free-standing, or attached to existing benches with the bench’s own vises or with clamps. These are the two that I use, both based on old designs that have been around for a very long time. They are easy to make & require little or no hardware, just make sure the jaws close cleanly along the top, so that they hold the saw firmly for filing.
Saw vise red.jpgsaw vise 2ed.jpg
3) Hand screws & other clamps
These are just another sort of vise, but they probably deserve a thread of their own, both because they are a special case, & because there are so many ways you can make your own versions....
Clamp rack red.jpg
OK, there’s a start.......
Cheers,IW
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31st March 2013, 10:31 AM #4
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31st March 2013, 06:48 PM #5
Another use for the tailvise. I'll have to reverse the 50mm nut for the bench screw and it will accomadate a 17in archie. Also, I'll make up inserts lined with rat fur. Horizontally, its just a 3 point rest.
The scraper is a " scratch stock " , the beads with the fielded rise are for French tables I used to do. The neck profile is " C " and " D ". I use it after spokeshaving. It's used it to quickly fair all the bevels before sanding.
Cheers, Bill
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31st March 2013, 06:56 PM #6
I know you all know a scratch stock. That was lifted holus bolus from my build thread on another forum and I couldn't edit.
Cheers, Bill
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4th April 2013, 05:33 PM #7
Any drawings and parts lists would be a great addition to the thread.
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4th April 2013, 09:32 PM #8
Hmmm, that's a difficult one, DSEL! There was a rough sketch on a bit of scrap paper, for my vise, but that was 30 years ago!
One of the attractions of 'home-built' is that you build to suit yourself, & often as not, what you have on hand dictates the end result as much as anything. It's principles & ideas that get the imaginative juices flowing. However, if anyone wants specific details of any of my gear, I'd be happy to provide that...
Cheers,IW
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4th April 2013, 09:59 PM #9
Found this if it helps on building wooden vises
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4th April 2013, 10:01 PM #10
IanW I am looking to make a portable bench with some built in vises, advice welcome. Don't want to hijack this one.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f213/wood-screw-help-168752/#post1631100
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13th April 2013, 07:14 AM #11
Part of good sawing is in having the work held very well, it seems to me.
I've been considering how to do that best - and if it can be done on the edge of a bench ... or using a split top.
There is the saw-bench idea, but that's pretty light weight compared to a workbench and I don't mind climbing up or standing on something.
I might want to saw the edge of a door ... or a big tabletop ... as well as smaller stuff.
No conclusions so far ... but I saw groggy had posted this ... Question for Jameel - Moxon Vise adaptability - talkFestool
Cheers,
Paul
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13th April 2013, 10:22 AM #12
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14th April 2013, 01:54 AM #13
Logan Cabinet Shoppe
A very simply attached twin-screw vice.
Episode #23: Workbench Work Holding | Logan Cabinet Shoppe
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15th April 2013, 03:20 PM #14
and a router (male) threader ...
Threading Small Vise Screws
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15th April 2013, 04:40 PM #15
This guy wanted a shoulder-vice ... (and should feed his dog occasionally)
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